- Title: Backstrom – I Am a Bird Now
- wiki: link
After suffering panic attack that bought him a momentary reprieve from the Civilian Oversight Panel, Backstrom (Rainn Wilson) immediately classifies the murder of a drag queen as a hate crime allowing him to avoid giving testimony until the case is officially concluded. Given its coincidence Amy (Sarah Chalke) questions the validity of what appeared to be Backstrom having a heart attack in the middle of his testimony, but with the set-up the show has done over its first few episodes we know about the tenuous health of its leading character (whether or not he acknowledges it or not).
The hate crime, which is really just a murder and robbery based on jealousy and revenge, isn’t all that interesting in and of itself. However, the situation does give Gregory (Thomas Dekker) a slightly bigger role this week. And the episode’s B-story involves a crisis of faith of sorts for Moto (Page Kennedy) who struggles with the right and wrong of lying to the committee to save Backstrom’s job and further his chances of advancement inside the department. Despite Almond’s (Dennis Haysbert) arguments for the truth it’s hard not to see Moto’s choice as the correct one for both his character and the series, although I suspect it might have ramifications for the officer down the line.
